Mary Beard shows us a remarkable ancient Roman communal tomb

In this second programme, Prof. Mary Beard descends down into the city streets to discover the dirt, crime, sex and slum conditions in the world’s first highrise city. This Rome is not the marble Rome we know, but a vast, messy metropolis, with little urban planning, where most Romans lived in high-rise apartment blocks with little space, light, even sanitation. Mary introduces us to some of the inhabitants of Rome in their communal tomb- demonstrating that we can learn a lot about them from the words they chose to leave behind.